The folks of Seattle
Avionics gave ANN the first look at a new product that should
significantly ease the chores of keeping one's charts up to date (a
task that has come to have all the charm of watching paint dry...).
A companion product for their impressive new Voyager
Flight-Planner, SmartPlates is an on-demand chart resource that
offers SIDs, STARs, airport runway and taxiway diagrams, minimums,
and all manner of conventional approaches including ILS, LOC, GPS,
RNAV, VOR, DME, NDB, LDA, SFD and MLS.
Using online resources, current charts are always available when
you log on through the product and presented in digital format for
viewing on-screen or printing. The program has an interesting way
of organizing your need for appropriate charts. When you qualify a
need for specific airports/areas, SmartPlates creates something it
calls "Plate Packs." The Plate Packs are an organized collection of
Approach and Departure Procedures plus Airport Diagrams and, in
some cases, Minimums -- all applicable to the flight you specify.
The charts they deliver, every procedure and diagram, is created by
the FAA (pulled from databases online) and is LEGAL for in-flight
use.
A SmartPlates Plate Pack is NOT the charts and procedures
themselves... but the list that you created when you specified your
flight needs -- this keeps file sizes down to a dull roar and your
hardware requirements within reason. When you open a previously
created Plate Pack, SmartPlates updates the entire list with the
most recent charts and procedures, virtually guaranteeing that you
have the latest info.
The Plate Packs may be accessed by themselves through
SmartPlates or (quite conveniently) from Seattle Avionics'
Flight-Planning program, Voyager. If you use Voyager, the program
knows to add charts to the Plate Pack as it examines a planned
route and eliminates the guess work of figuring out just what you
might need. And, as previously noted, every time you open a Plate
Pack, the program checks for the most current charts.
A quick perusal of SmartPlates found the menuing architecture to
be very simple, and accompanied by plenty of prompts
via convenient "wizards" that help neophytes (or, worse, a
really dumb Editor-In-Chief) create their first Plate Packs. The
program offers the ability to customize charts to mission
requirements, and the high-resolution digital charts offer the
ability to zoom in closely on minute details on charts (and print
them out that way...) which is the just the thing to have when
you're dealing with a complex procedure.
We're just getting started looking this over... but so far, our
impressions are pretty positive... give us a few weeks of hard
usage and we'll let you know if the first impression holds up as we
fumble through, uh, work carefully with this program. Suffice it to
say, though, that we're intrigued -- it sure is nice not to have to
replace charts every month... a chore that we've truly come to
loathe.
Seattle Avionics says that SmartPlates runs on a desktop or
laptop PC and can also export files to a PDA running Pocket PC
2002, 2003 or Windows Mobile operating system. To use SmartPlates
on a Pocket PC, though, you'll need 'SmartPlates for the Pocket
PC', available as an option (be advised that the Pocket PC version
does require the desktop/laptop version, though). More info to
follow....